We did a 60 mile, 6 day backpack, entering Graves Creek into Quinault river area to Enchanted Valley, around Anderson, La Cross and O'Neil Pass loop, and back out Enchanted Valley and Quinault.
First night was at Pyrites Creek. Then up for our second night at Anderson Pass, including a nice lake swim near the glacier. Saw elk enroute, then our first distant bear there.
Day three up and over La Crosse Pass and down to Duckabush. This latter part was a rough trail, lots of blowdown and overgrowth, and we got stung a total of ten times between the three of us by yellow jackets, ouch!
Then continued same day (long 12 mile day) up to Marmot Lake for a swim before heading the last mile and a quarter up to Lake La Crosse for the night. In September, in my opinion, the two best bear areas in the state are Lake La Crosse and the 7 Lakes area, both in the Olympics, and sure enough we saw 11 bears at Lake La Crosse over the night and morning we spent there. Even joined a bear who was swimming in the lake!
Next morning, another sunny day, up over O'Neil Pass, along ridges over and back to Enchanted Valley, saw two different mom bears with a cub each, so we saw 16 bears total during this trip!
And plenty of sweet, ripe berries enroute. Last couple days were uneventful but gorgeous hiking through the old growth rainforest. Great trip.
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